Wow! That means there are now three NAGTYans on this forum, and counting. (Me, Miranda and Vicky)
Well, that just about butries any possibility of a link between dyspraxia and stupidity (not that there really was one in the first place).

Thirteen-thirty-seven wrote:Wow! That means there are now three NAGTYans on this forum, and counting. (Me, Miranda and Vicky)Well, that just about butries any possibility of a link between dyspraxia and stupidity (not that there really was one in the first place).

I know what you mean. I was only told about NAGTY when I was a few short months away from my sixteenth birthday. All these tantalising descriptions of the different Outreach events kept coming through the letterbox with 'Ages 11-16' written on them. Grrr. I have only been on a limited number of events - and some of those events involved non-NAGTY members who had been nominated for membership by their schools. One or two of them were about as gifted as my shoelaces, but they were granted full membership in the Academy just by virtue of their schools' nominations. Double grrr.

NAGTY defines "Gifted" as anyone who is in the top 5% nationally. When I joined you had to submit an application letter and three other pieces of evidence that you were gifted - teste results, work samples or something along those lines. Now they've changed the criteria and you only need one other piece of evidence.

I donâ€™t think that dyspraxia can be included as an autistic spectrum disorder. When I read on the â€˜Autism New Zealandâ€™ site the following I realised something:

How can we tell if a person has an autism spectrum disorder?

There are three key areas of cluster features which provide the criteria for a diagnosis for autism, these are known as the 'triad of impairments' (Wing and Gould, 1979)
1. Social:
Impaired, deviant and extremely delayed social development - especially interpersonal development. The variation may be from 'autistic aloofness' to 'active but odd' characteristics.

2. Language and Communication:
Impaired and deviant language and communication development - verbal and non-verbal. Deviant* semantic and pragmatic aspects of language.

3. Thought and behaviour:
Rigidity of thought and behaviour and poor social imagination. Ritualistic behaviour, reliance on routines, extreme delay or absence of pretend play

*deviant: - differing from a norm or from the accepted standards of a society
semantic: - relating to meaning, especially in language
pragmatic: - dealing or concerned with facts or actual occurrences

The site then listed dyspraxia as a disorder on the list. I do agree that people with dyspraxia can have problems in all 3 of these areas. But, in Autistic Spectrum Disorders every one diagnosed had all three characteristics (at least thatâ€™s what it appeared to be saying).

Though most people with dyspraxia might have characteristics in all 3 of these areas not all do (look at the results from that autism test which showed that not all people with dyspraxia struggle to the same extent in the social area). Also when I saw the educational psychologist she looked at my coordination, movement, speech, handwriting, short-term memory, and discrepancies to come to the conclusion of dyspraxia. She never held a proper conversation with me to find out form me what my struggles where and never did she look into my social behaviour as a use for diagnosis of dyspraxia it was nearly solely done on my performances in the WAIS-III and WIAT II. The criteria needed to diagnose an autistic spectrum disorder are not needed when diagnosing dyspraxia.

This makes dyspraxia confusing as many people with dyspraxia struggle in the same areas as some one with an autistic spectrum disorder (though not always to the same extent remembering autistic spectrum disorders are on a continuum). When I thought about where dyspraxia did fit, it really was just sitting in the middle of nowhere, with one foot in the autistic spectrum and one foot out.

Monkey, my educational psychologist interviewed me and my teachers about my social skills. Did she not ask you any questions about yours at all?

The triad of impairments are very broad. An impairment in language, for example, could cover anything from a person who greets, "Could you pass me the salt?" with a puzzled, "Yes," and then does nothing at all, not realising that it is a request and not an aptitude question; to a person who is asked to calculate the average number of people who can fit into a hospital lift at any one time, but writes an essay on how there is no such thing as an 'average' person in a hospital instead of doing the maths. (My nephew does the first thing, and I did the second.) Both qualify as language difficulties - but only my nephew has the autistic diagnosis.

Not all autistic people are alike. In fact, most of them are very different from each other. At my nephew's special school you would be hard put to guess that every child in his class has a diagnosis of autism, because they are all affected in such different ways.

The Dyscovery Centre and the Dyspraxia Foundation have reiterated that dyspraxia causes problems with social skills. But while they say that it is 'linked' to autism, they don't place it on the spectrum. Perhaps dyspraxic problems cause pseudo-autistic symptoms that would vanish if the problems were tackled directly? For instance, my nervousness about my poor table manners makes me reluctant to eat in public. This could come across as social avoidance, a sign of autism, even though it has quite a different cause. If my table manners improved - hey presto, social awkwardness gone.

Then again, I do seem to have 'people problems' that don't stem from such causes. Aversion to eye contact, for example. It is very confusing.

the moment i was seated she said we had to hurry to get through all the WAIS. it was same on both days. we did not talk much. she asked my mum to full out a one page form about my birth and any asistence i had at school as far as learning.

my mum latter told me that she had writen more than that. she hadnt wanted to tell me what she had writen because she didnt want me to be angry with her. but in the bottom when it left it open to other comments. she felt it was important that i had always been in my own world.

the other thing that she mentioned after saying i lived in my own world. (and this is the part she felt that i would get angry about) she said that i often still did. she said to me that i often just steared into sapce at n othing in my own world.

she and my dad (i live with them now) seem to have made it there mission to improve my social skills.

i also had to full out a form, asking me what year levels i did at school, which schools i went to, and wether any one else in my family had learning disorders. it aksed me what i wanted to achive form an assemsmnt (it wasnt very persific which is nver helpful) but did not aske me anyting further than those type of questions.

i think that there is a difference betwene autism spectrum disorders adn dyspraxia. i think that they have areas where they are the same and areas where they are different. im not an expert, and usaly i dont kwno what im talking about

'Perhaps dyspraxic problems cause pseudo-autistic symptoms that would vanish if the problems were tackled directly? For instance, my nervousness about my poor table manners makes me reluctant to eat in public. This could come across as social avoidance, a sign of autism, even though it has quite a different cause. If my table manners improved - hey presto, social awkwardness gone.

Then again, I do seem to have 'people problems' that don't stem from such causes. Aversion to eye contact, for example. It is very confusing.'

i agree with you compleatly. it is dificult to place what cases the difficultys themselves. they are social dificultys but some seem to come from autistic tendenceys (aversion to eye contact) while others do not (table manners).

my dad called me space case and what is with that word , i do not know but i never knew what my mom put on any of my assessment or anything that she filled out in the past. my english and social studies teacher said that i would be doing my work and i am typing my work and i would start laughing and no body had a clue what i was laughing about and the teacher said it was like you should of been there and i was in my own world at times because my mind drifted off and it was like i was some where else and not where i was at , but then she said that she thought i had adhd and i told her i do have that , i take medicine for that but doctor went on vacation and it was a very long one too and i was off medicine for a 2 or 3 months i think and i was finally put on some other medicine and ever since that i been on ritalin and i started on ritalin april 2004, it has changed my life and i stopped getting in trouble like i use to and the teacher wrote a note to my doctor and i am the one that asked for ritalin and i am happy that i did and that teacher is a lady and then when i was in 9th grade my special ed. teacher caught on to my behavior and thought i had adhd and i had test done, all the stuff that had to be done, teacher, and my mom filled out forms and they wouldn't let me read them, i wanted to and my teacher, he brought the papers to my house and gave them to my mom , and i was referred to a psychologist in 2001 and i was diagnosed with adhd= combined type and it is a mild case in february 2001. i have been having behavior problems my whole life and no body caught on to it until i was in 9th grade, and my mom never was told when i was in 8th grade that i have vision problems and my teacher looked at my files and found out that i have vision problems and so i got my vision tested and have been wearing glasses since 9th grade and have broke glasses on accident , i had my 3 year evaluation my 9th grade year and it was suppose to be done when i was in 8th grade and it was not done until 9th grade.